Himalayan Ayurvedic Medicine School
Distance Learning & In-Person Classes in Berkeley
Our Professional Ayurveda Diploma Programs:
Become a Certified Practitioner of Ayurvedic and Tibetan herbal and
dietary therapies. The non-profit Ayurveda Healing Arts Institute
offers distance learning (correspondence course) and
in-person formats leading to specialized certifications (4 levels):
I.
Clinical Ayurveda Therapist (C.A.T.): 225 hours, 15 units
$1,250 Distance Learning, $2,508 In-Person Classroom-based Learning
Sliding Scale Donation or Payment is available for all Programs
II.
Clinical Ayurvedic Herbalist (C.A.H.): 750 hours,
50 units $3,210 Distance Learning, $7,243 In-Person Classroom-based
III.
Clinical Ayurvedic Herbalist Specialist (C.A.H.S./A.S.):
1,200 hours, 80 units $4,600 Distance Learning, $10,908 In-Person
IV.
Master Ayurvedic Herbalist (M.A.H. / B.S. BuddHA):
1,800 hours, 120 units $6,193 Distance Learning, $15,408 In-Person
New School Year Program begins March 2006.
Distance Learning can be started at any time.
Visit our website for detailed catalog and over 20 hours of free sample
audio lectures. Students can begin classes at any time. Small class size
with day, evening or weekend classes in the San Francisco Area
incorporating up to 12 hours weekly of hands-on, clinical
consultations (supervised by Michael Kreuzer) with in-depth
academic coursework based on ancient Ayurvedic, Yogic and
Buddhist classic texts and the clinical work of modern day
Ayurvedists like Dr. Vasant Lad and Dr. Partap Chauhan and spiritual
teachers like Ven. Master Hsuan Hua of City of 10,000 Buddhas.
Our comprehensive interactive and personalized curriculum includes
hundreds of hours of audio and video, PowerPoint slides, textbooks,
searchable electronic texts, extensive herbal database, supplemental
reading and herb sample label packets. Distance Learning is via
compressed CDs played on your PC or WMA-MP3 Player.
We offer a coherent professional educational program for Ayurvedic
herbalists and Ayurveda practitioners; an opportunity with which to
learn and integrate information and clinical perceptions in less time
than if one tried to do it alone; a schooling that gives a base skeleton
of knowledge to be expanded and fleshed-out with time and your
own clinical experience. Beginners of all levels are welcome!
Accreditation:
There are not yet accrediting bodies for schools of Ayurveda,
herbology or botanical medicine. Upon finishing the program the
student will be awarded a diploma. The value of the program is what
you have learned and your ability to use it and add to it for your selfhealing and those of your clients.
Our Spiritual and Scientific Mission:
It is the vision of the founders of the Ayurveda Healing Arts Institute
to offer California’s complete yet affordable program of in-person
Ayurvedic study while providing a comprehensive multimedia-based
audio-video Ayurvedic Medicine distance-learning program.
Work-Study and Financial Aid Scholarships are available.
One of the most common questions that the American Herbalist
Guild (AmericanHerbalistsGuild.com) receives are "How do I train to
be an herbalist?" and "How do I recognize a well-trained and
competent herbalist?" In reply to these questions, as well in response
to the growing popularity of herbal medicine and the need to
maintain and promote the craft of herbalism in the United States, the
Guild has established a core 1600-hour curriculum to serve as a
common guideline applicable to herbal schools throughout the U.S.
The Ayurveda Healing Arts Institute fully supports and subscribes to
these guidelines of the Guild. The aim of both the Guild and the
Ayurveda Healing Arts Institute is to honor, preserve, and encourage
the many diverse traditions of herbal medicine, with the Ayurveda
Healing Arts Institute focusing primarily on the ancient wisdom of
the Indo-Tibetan Ayurvedic tradition while providing a basic clinical
appreciation for both Western and Chinese herbs as well. Students
are allowed to audit without getting certified.
The curriculum of all four of our diploma programs includes Basic
Human Sciences – Western and Ayurvedic; Botany and Plant
Identification; Indian-Tibetan-Chinese-Western Materia Medica from
Ayurvedic perspective, Therapeutic Herbalism; Pharmacy,
Pharmacognosy and Dispensing; Clinical Skills; Career Preparation,
Practice Development, Ethics; History and in-depth Philosophy;
Introduction to Research; and Supervised Clinical Case Studies.
Graduates of the Institute can be ordained by the Medicine Buddha
Healing Center as a Pastoral Counselor providing First Amendment
Constitutional Protection to practice Ayurveda as their spiritual
discipline, sacred duty and avocation. However, as of September 24,
2002 it is legal (SB 577) to practice Ayurveda in California.
Ayurveda Healing
Arts Institute
Earn Certification Diplomas in
East Indian and Tibetan Ayurveda
Affordable Comprehensive
Ayurvedic and Himalayan Herbology
Audio-Video Multimedia-based Distance Learning
and In-Person Programs in Berkeley
Certified Ayurvedic Herbalist and
Practitioner Educational Certificate Programs
California’s Comprehensive Supervised Clinical In-Person
Classroom-based Part Time or Full Time Training in East Indian
Ayurvedic Herbology - Nutrition, and Tibetan Medicine.
Designed to promote both an academic understanding and practical,
clinical appreciation of Ayurvedic therapies.
Ayurvedic Healing Arts Institute
of the Medicine Buddha Healing Center
2150 Center Street, Berkeley, California 94704
(1) 510-292-6696 www.Ayurveda-Berkeley.com
School: www.Ayurveda-Institute.org Namo@Medicine-Buddha.org
Ayurvedic Herbal Medicine School
Our Inspiration to Spread Ayurveda in the West:
Encouraged by our distinguished teacher Dr. Vasant Lad’s
commitment to propagate Ayurveda in the West, the
educational diploma programs of the Ayurveda Healing Arts
Institute were developed by Michael Reid Kreuzer, D.Ayur.,
M.S. with guidance from Michael Dick, M.A., Dr. William
Celentano, Osteopathic Physician, and prominent Ayurvedic
Physician Dr. Partap Chauhan, B.A.M.S.
Our Experienced Ayurvedic Faculty:
Rev. Michael Reid Kreuzer, D.Ayur, Ph.D., Herbalist
Co-Founder of the school and one of two resident full faculty
members, Michael is author of “Medicine Buddha Herbs”. He
completed a six-year 1800-hour apprenticeship with
Dr. Vasant Lad, B.A.M.S., M.A.Sc., the world-renowned
Ayurvedic Physician with 40 years experience who founded the
Ayurvedic Institute – the premier Ayurvedic educational
institution outside India. Trained by Dr. Lad as a clinician,
pulse reader and teacher, Michael served on the Ayurvedic
Institute’s faculty where he taught herbology. A graduate of the
Ayurvedic Institute, Michael continued advanced clinical study
where he observed Dr. Lad healing over 1900 patients in India
and the US. Dr. Lad said, “Michael is a dedicated,
compassionate, highly spiritual person who was put on this
planet to heal people.” In 2000, Michael was one of the first
Ayurvedic Herbalists ever to be awarded Diplomate of
Ayurveda (D.Ayur) by the American Ayurvedic Association
(AyurvedicAssociation.com). Michael’s 9 years of scholarship
included Chinese Medicine theory and two intensive Tibetan
Medicine study trips to H.H. Dalai Lama’s Tibetan Medicine &
Astrological Institute in the Indian Himalayan Mountains
(www.tibetan-medicine.org), where he studied with Tibetan Dr.
Kelsang Dorje. In 2000, Michael co-founded the non-profit
Medicine Buddha Healing Center to revive the age-old
integration of Buddhism with Indo-Tibetan Ayurveda. He
teaches at the Berkeley Buddhist Monastery and Elephant
Pharmacy (Sundays - see ElephantPharmacy.com) and
maintains his busy practice in downtown Berkeley.
Bill Celentano, D.O., Ph.D., Primary Care Physician
A regular adjunct faculty member, Dr. Bill, a primary and
urgent care physician, is board-certified in family medicine. He
received a degree in Osteopathic Medicine from Midwestern
University with special training involving Osteopathic
treatment in the Cranial Field and completed a residency in
Family Medicine at the San Bernardino County Medical Center.
Dr. Bill is currently Director of Las Vegas Institute of Ayurveda
and is a Staff Physician at the McCarran Clinic of the University
Medical Center in Vegas. Prior to returning to medical school,
Dr. Bill graduated from the National College of Chiropractic.
Interest in Acupuncture and Meridian Therapy led him to two
trips to China to work with physicians at the Shenzhen
Hospital of Oriental Medicine. Having also studied Ayurveda
with Dr. Lad, Dr. Partap Chauhan, and Dr. Sunil Joshi, Dr. Bill
adds a valued synthesis of Western Medicine concepts with the
time-tested wisdom of Ayurveda. He has been involved in the
incorporation of an integrative approach to medicine and
healing practice since 1982.
Michael Dick, Ph.D., Master Herbalist, Pulse Diagnostician
Michael Dick, M.A. is one of the adjunct faculty members at
both Dr. Lad’s Ayurvedic Institute and the Ayurveda Healing
Arts Institute and is the author of the Ayurvedic Herbology
Textbook used by the Ayurveda Healing Arts Institute. Mr.
Dick co-taught herbology with Michael Kreuzer at the
Ayurvedic Institute. He also instructs our courses on the
Sanskrit Ayurvedic Classic Texts such as the Charaka Samhita
and Ashtanga Hridayam. Like Mr. Kreuzer, Michael Dick also
completed a six-year 1800-hour apprenticeship with Dr. Lad.
Mr. Dick has a B.A. in Psychology and extensive Ayurvedic
training with a focus on herbology and pulse diagnosis
including a two year Master’s Program in advanced Ayurveda in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, Dr. Lad’s 1-year Ayurvedic Studies
Program, five years in advanced clinical Ayurvedic study
(Gurukula) with Dr. Lad, Pancha Karma training in
Massachusetts, and training in India under the guidance of an
Indian Vaidya. Additionally he has studied western herbalism,
Jyotisha, palmistry and cranio-sacral therapy. Mr. Dick has
been a private Ayurvedic practitioner for the past nine years.
Dr. Partap Chauhan, B.A.M.S., Ph.D., Ayurvedic Physician
Dr. Chauhan is a regular adjunct faculty member teaching
Ayurvedic Rasa Shastra (metallic, mineral and gem herbal
compounds) at the Ayurveda Healing Arts Institute.
Dr. Chauhan just finished in October 2004 teaching 5 days of
clinical assessment class with our students in Berkeley, where
we saw more 28 client consultations in a small group
apprenticeship “Gurukula” style setting. Dr. Chauhan is
teaching for our Institute via both in-person in-classroom
lectures and via distance learning multimedia audio and video
courses. Dr. Chauhan hosts our yearly India Study-Abroad
Program in his busy clinic and school outside of Delhi. Dr.
Chauhan, Director of Jiva Ayurveda Center for Incurable
Diseases (www.Ayurvedic.org), has an extensive background in
Vedic philosophy and spirituality and is an accomplished
Vaidya (Ayurvedic Doctor) practicing Ayurveda in its original
form. In 1980 he joined the Delhi University’s Ayurvedic
College, graduating second in his graduating class.
Formal education did not suffice to quench his deep thirst for
knowledge so he searched for a guru to unlock the secrets of
Ayurveda. His search culminated in 1983 when he met with
the late Shri Nanak Chand Sharma, an expert in Rasa Sastra
(alchemy) and the preparation of Ayurvedic medicines. Dr
Chauhan undertook five years of grueling full time study under
Vaidya Sharma’s active guidance, and mastered the intricacies
of herbal medicines and their preparation.
In 1991, while still studying under the tutelage of Vaidya
Sharma, he started his own practice south of Delhi. He also
established the Jiva Pharmacy to create purely Ayurvedic
medicines. In these years, Dr Chauhan has toured and lectured
in many countries worldwide helping chronic patients.
Robert Chu, L.Ac., M.S. TCM, Ph.D., Chinese Herbalist
A licensed acupuncturist, Robert teaches integrated Chinese
and Ayurvedic herbology and is a nationally recognized
Buddhist-Taoist black belt Kung-Fu Wing-Cheng Master.